How do you define a "job"? And what does "mandatory" have to do with it? Sometimes I skipped classes - but I remained a student. Do you have a job that so is mandatory that you can't ever stop doing it? Or are you saying there must be mandatory requirements for you to consider it a job? Let a football player stop showing up for practices or games and see how long they stay on the team.
Soon, perhaps next season, the
House settlement will allow, or perhaps require, schools to make direct NIL payments to their athletes. So then you will have:
- Athletes reporting to a location determined by the coach/school to perform a service.
- Athletes performing this service with little to no independent authority over when, how, and for how long it is done.
- If athletes fail to adhere to the above requirements, they lose the opportunity to perform the service (get "fired").
- In return for performing the services, athletes are being compensated by various benefits.
- Athletes being compensated monetarily by the school for the use of their name, image, or likeness.
I'm going by the current IRS definition, but if I were to argue against these athletes being employees, I would most likely latch on to the NIL payments as being disassociated from the services they perform for the school. But I think that is a weak argument. And you are entitled to your opinion - I'm just stating the situation from the standpoint of how the IRS defines it.